Chapter 4: Discussions and Realisations
Tifa sighed. She made every last guest leave the 'Eleventh Heaven'. Many customers complained about the sudden closure, asked her why. She smiled at them and only said:
"Something sprung up awhile ago. It's important."
She was about to off the lights when she saw a drunk body of a man lying in the corner next to the jukebox. He was babbling "So my mom told me...she said....no no that's not what..."
"Hrmph!" Tifa stared crossly, hands at her hip at the mess of a man. "Bloody Dan." Tifa strode up to the dazed man. She pulled him up and pushed the woozy man out of the door. The man continued talking insensibly about his family problems.
"Shut up Dan, if you weren't so drunk, you would have used this money to tide over your problems," she snapped. Tifa gave a heave and pushed out the man onto the sidewalk outside her bar. "Don't let me see you here again, causing nuisance here."
Going back into the bar, she made double sure that no one was left and turned off the lights. Closing the door that led to the bar, she shook her head, relieved from a day's hard work. She ran up the stairs, making sure that the orphans were sleeping soundly in their beds. Fir if their not, she would give them a short lecture on 'how late it was now'.
Cloud, Vincent and Kysten sat in the living room, tensed. Neither one moved from their seats nor talked to each other. Cloud had initially wanted to talk to Vincent about the past year but slumped into the soft cushion stealing short glances at the strange sliver haired boy. Kysten knew Cloud was looking at him and felt troubled. He broke the silence.
"Can you please stop staring at me? It's unnerving."
"Oh, sorry. Perhaps for starters, I'm Cloud. My lady friend there is Tifa. You're Kysten right?" He tried to smile, awkwardly.
"Yes." Kysten bowed his head down in silence. "By the looks of these people, they do not look inviting. This Cloud guy... looks at me with contempt. I'm really that useless, feels so dirty. Only Father and Mother cared about me... They were the only ones which showed me kindness. Hell...they're gone. Nothing can change that, nothing. So what good are these people? What right are they to judge me? Hah! It feels hurting inside...ever since..."
Tifa ran down the stairs, the stair boards creaking underneath her. She went to the back of the kitchen and took out a glass jar of distilled water from the cooler. She bent down to get four small glasses from the cabinet and put them in a tray together with the jar. Tossing her silky long hair to one side, she took the refreshments out to her unexpected visitors.
She looked at Vincent and Kysten. Vincent she had not seen since the victory celebrations after the defeat of Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz. He just disappeared, vanished. It seemed that he did not exist at all for the time. Back then, she felt ill at ease and awkward in his presence, now, she felt that the aura around him seemed less frightening and perturbing. "He's probably changed," she thought.
Tifa then shifted her view onto Kysten. She gulped down a ball that formed in her gut. First Sephiroth then came along Kadaj and his gang. Like them, Kysten just came out of nowhere. There was something about Kysten she felt peculiar. Kysten looked lost and confused, just like the innocent orphans she took in. She walked towards him. He slumped forward, skinny elbows on his knee, hand on his shoulder. His shoulder length hair hung down as his face looked towards the ground. "He has one of the most unusual auras around him. Unlike Vincent, his seems fearsome and intimidating. I feel as if I knew him from somewhere, but whom?" She did not want to jump into conclusions and decided to play it safe.
"Erm, Kysten? Here's your drink." Tifa interrupted his train of thoughts.
"Thanks," he whispered. Kysten took the glass of cold water from her hands and lifted it to his lips. For a moment, he placed the cup at his lips and he slowly drank part of the clear liquid and set it down on the coffee table in front of him.
Tifa handed the other men their glasses and smothered her black shorts before sitting down next to Cloud.
"Pardon me for my unexpected arrival," Vincent started. "I felt it was a priority to bring him here."
"Ahh...it's nothing. Besides, as I was saying, where did you find the boy?" Cloud shifted forward. His fingers locked in between each other.
"Found him in the streets yesterday, took him in." he replied straight to the point.
"I see..." Cloud pondered for a moment and he turned and shifted his gaze toward the perpetually disturbed Kysten. "Kysten, where are you from?"
Kysten darted his eyes from one person to another. They all watched him, expecting to hear his answer. "Strangers, yet they already want to know my life's story," he contemplated. "No. Why should I?" he replied coldly.
"Kysten, answer the question!" Cloud's tone became more intimidating. He looked closely into Kysten's eyes, fiery green meeting a fearful purple.
Tifa knew the boy was daunted by Cloud's demanding approach. "Cloud, I think we should..." she tried. She put a hand on his lap.
"No Tifa let me do the talking." Cloud cut her off. "Kysten, answer me!"
"No."
"ANSWER ME!" Cloud lost his patience and shouted.
Tifa's eyes widened. She had never seen Cloud this scary before. She remembered the children upstairs and Cloud's uproar would have scared some of them.
"Cloud! You'll wake the children!" Tifa cried. Vincent stared unmovingly at the three.
"No! Leave me be!" Kysten hollered. He jumped from his seat and ran towards the door. Vincent saw the boy leaving and with agility, grabbed tightly the boy's right arm before he could reach for the door.
"Let me go! I appreciate your hospitality Vincent, I'm done here. What else do you want of me?" Kysten snarled. He struggled and kicked at Vincent but the older man resisted Kysten's futile attempts of freedom.
Cloud got up to drag Kysten back to the living room. He took hold of Kysten's other flailing arm and attempted to move him. Kysten's struggle made the long sleeves of his shirt to reveal up his arms, exposing what was like pierced skin and wounds from his upper arm.
"Damn!" Cloud exclaimed. "Where did you get this?" He extended a hand and clasped his arm firmly to take a closer look. Tifa came behind him from making sure the children are asleep, inspecting the marks on his arm.
It took Cloud only a few seconds to recognise that trademark scar on his arms. He had exactly the same ones on his arm, when he was injected with Mako. "Mako injections," he whispered. All the fiery died out of him. He knew that Mako was only used on people either when they worked with ShinRa then, or just like Vincent, was used as a lab rat. He assumed the latter. "Did you partake in any experiments?"
Kysten stopped struggling, he stared coldly into Cloud's eyes. "Let me go, Vincent. I'll talk."
"Kysten I know we're people you don't know. But trust us. We will help you if you can." Cloud strained his words, putting his hand over his heart, showing his sincerity towards Kysten.
"So you want to know everything eh?" Kysten asked, free from the clutches of Vincent and Cloud. Seeing Cloud's gesture, he felt more reassured. "Sit down. Vincent, I hadn't been entirely true with you. It's because I didn't trust you."
The three sat back on their seats. Kysten took a sip of water before calming down. He breathes out and started "Okay...here goes."
"I have no idea when or where I was born. Nor who were my parents. Maybe it was amnesia or something but I had no clue at all. I only knew that I was alive when it went back around 6 years back. I was in this cave where some people did some experiments on me. They put me in this cell, and every time I asked them about me, they're bring me to a chair and inject me with something which makes me feel woozy and dazed. There was a time about 1 and a half years ago when the guard didn't close the door. I ran through it and lost my way. This couple found me in the streets and they care for me for a long time, I did not have a proper name but was called Mirror but my captors so they named me Kysten. I thought it was all over until the same men which imprisoned me in the caves somehow managed to find me and tried to capture me. They couple tried in vain to protect me but died in their hands. I ran away, until Vincent found me."
They all listened closely to Kysten's moving story. Tifa's eyes were brimming with tears from his sad story. All stared in silence. "I don't know whether they will come after me, whether they would find me. I planned to run away from Vincent's apartment. I didn't want him to get involved in this, just like what happened to the couple who homed me."
"It might not be you who is only involved in this Kysten. More or less, we are most likely involved in this." Vincent said. "You were most likely part of an experiment of Hojo."
"We once were used by him." Cloud added. "If Hojo's alive, we're gonna put him to rest again."
Sidelines
dang..one quite long chapter...tired